Guwahati, April 8
A blast and boycott by entire Guwahati-based media persons over police highhandedness marred Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s much-hyped two-day visit to the state here this evening.
The Prime Minister was here to lay the foundation stone of the second bridge over the Brahmaputra in Guwahati as part of the under construction East West Corridor project. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) would construct the bridge at a cost of Rs 238.44 crore and the project is slated to be completed in April 2010.
City SSP S.N. Singh hurled verbal abuses over a large group of media persons at the entrance to the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex where the function was held. The police official turned hostile when media persons showing their special invitation cards requested him to allow them inside much before the arrival of the Prime Minister. The police was finding it very hard to control the big crowd at the gate at that time.
Repeated requests by Asom Chief Minister’s press adviser D.K. Bora failed to persuade the enraged and shocked the media persons to change their decision to boycott the function.
Meanwhile, one person was killed and 12 others were injured when a blast rocked the Kumarpara area in the heart of the city just after the arrival of the Prime Minister around 5.45 pm today, exposing the loopholes in the security arrangement in view of the VVIP visit.
The police informed that the bomb was planted on a motorcycle parked on the road by suspected militants of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). The blast occurred near a busy railway level crossing in the area.
